History of North Africa
The region also has a small but crucial land link to the Middle East, and that area has also played a key role in the history of North Africa.
[citation needed] North Africa is a relatively thin strip of land between the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean, stretching from Moroccan Atlantic coast to Egypt.
[citation needed] In 15,000 BP, the West African Monsoon transformed the landscape of Africa and began the Green Sahara period; greater rainfall during the summer season resulted in the growth of humid conditions (e.g., lakes, wetlands) and the savanna (e.g., grassland, shrubland) in North Africa.
[citation needed] In the Mesolithic period, Capsian culture dominated the central part of North Africa with Neolithic farmers becoming predominant by 6000 BC.
The Greek trade was based mainly in the Aegean, Adriatic, Black, and Red Seas and they only established major cities in Cyrenaica, directly to the south of Greece.
In 30 BC, Roman Emperor Octavian conquered Egypt, officially annexing it to the Empire and, for the first time, unifying the North African coast under a single ruler.
A network of forts and walls were established on the southern frontier, eventually securing the region well enough for local garrisons to control it without broader Imperial support.
[10][11] In the 7th century CE, the inception of Islam facilitated the unification of nomadic Arab tribes by bond of a common faith, preventing their historical internecine fighting along religious divisions.
[13]: 47–48 The main motivation for expansion was to spread Islam and convert pagans, with emphasis on the toleration of people practising other monotheistic or Abrahamic religions.
[14]: 56 Led by ingenious generals, the nascent Rashidun Caliphate centred in Medina won a series of crucial victories against the established powers in the Middle East, expanding in all directions, with the Byzantine's financial and military exhaustion from previous wars in the region inducing them to evacuate from Syria in 636 CE after only two years of conflict.
[17]: 59 Marching up the Nile, the Muslims launched a campaign against the Makurians but were repelled in battle, in a rare defeat owing to skilled Nubian archery and natural defences.
The Muslims effortlessly annexed Ifriqiya (modern-day Libya) and in 647 CE defeated and killed Gregory and his army decisively in battle.
Not wishing to annex the territory, they carried out raids across the decapitated state, and the populations, seeing they were at the Muslims' mercy, appealed to the general to pay a substantial tribute which was accepted.
[19]: 81–82 Further expansion into North Africa waited another twenty years, due to the First Fitna, which led to the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate, who moved the capital of the Muslim empire to Damascus, and its rule over the newly-conquered territories.
In 670 CE, Uqba ibn Nafi al-Fihiri invaded what is now Tunisia in an attempt to take the region from the Byzantine Empire, but was only partially successful.
Abul-Muhajir successfully advanced into what is now eastern Algeria incorporating the Kingdom of Altava and Awraba tribe both ruled by Kusaila into the Islamic sphere of influence.
For five years this secured for Kahina the position of the uncontested ruler of the Maghreb until Arab reinforcements arrived in 703 CE and al-Nu'man advanced into what is now Tunisia, again meeting Al-Kahina near Gabis.
Nusair attacked what is now Morocco, captured Tangier, and advanced to the Sus river and the Tafilalt oasis in a three-year campaign.
[20]: 41 The Fatimid Caliphate was established by Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i with the help Kutama Berbers from Little Kabylia after they conquered Ifriqiya from the Aghlabids.
After a long period of decline, the Fatimid Caliphate was eventually abolished by Salah ad-Din in 1171 and replaced in Egypt by the Ayyubid dynasty.
[24] Initially on behalf of the Fatimids, they ruled the eastern and central Maghreb but encountered more resistance to the west from local Zenata factions and the Umayyads of Cordoba.
[20]: 69 They managed to conquer land in all of the Maghreb region, capturing and possessing significant territories such as: Algiers, Bougie, Tripoli, Sfax, Susa, Fez, Ouargla and Sijilmasa.
[20]: 76–80 This movement created an empire which, at its greatest extent, encompassed Al-Andalus (southern and eastern Iberia at the time) and roughly all of present-day Morocco and Western Sahara.
Conrad and Fisher (1982) argued that the notion of any Almoravid military conquest at its core is merely perpetuated folklore, derived from a misinterpretation or naive reliance on Arabic sources[31] while Dierke Lange agrees but argues that this doesn't preclude Almoravid political agitation, claiming that Ghana's demise owed much to the latter.
[29]: 246 After Ibn Tumart's death, the movement's political leadership passed on to 'Abd al-Mu'min, who overthrew the Almoravids and conquered the entire Maghreb and the remaining territories of Al-Andalus.
After the Middle Ages, Northern Africa was loosely under the control of the Ottoman Empire, except for the Kabyle people and Moroccan region ruled by Saadi Sultanate.
European strife also contributed to lack of trading between regions, with the Berlin wall falling and overall a necessity to draw their focus away from Maghreb.
The wider protest movement known as the Arab Spring began with revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt which ultimately led to the overthrow of their governments, as well as civil war in Libya.
[40] At Takarkori rockshelter, in Libya, two naturally mummified women, dated to the Middle Pastoral Period (7000 BP), carried basal haplogroup N.[42] The Taforalts of Morocco, who were found to be 63.5% Natufian, were also found to be 36.5% Sub-Saharan African (e.g., Hadza), which is drawn out, most of all, by West Africans (e.g., Yoruba, Mende).
[45] Neolithic agriculturalists, who may have resided in Northeast Africa and the Near East, may have been the source population for lactase persistence variants, including –13910*T, and may have been subsequently supplanted by later migrations of peoples.
